Methane emissions are rising faster than ever, research shows

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever, research shows

Credit: CC0 Public Domain The world has not hit the brakes on methane emissions, a powerful driver of climate change. More than 150 nations have pledged to slash by 30% this decade under a global methane pledge, but new research shows global methane emissions over the past five years have risen faster than ever. The … Read more

Crispr-Enhanced Viruses Are Being Deployed Against UTIs

Crispr-Enhanced Viruses Are Being Deployed Against UTIs

Locus’s therapy is actually a cocktail of six phages. The company used artificial intelligence to predict a combination that would be effective against E. coli. Three of the phages are “lytic,” meaning work by infecting E. coli cells and causing them to burst open. The other three are engineered to contain Crispr to enhance their … Read more

Improved air quality model aids forecasters in the field

Improved air quality model aids forecasters in the field

AQM v7 prediction of PM2.5 concentration (unit: μg/m^3) overlaid with USEPA observations (colored circles) across the Northwestern U.S. at 00Z UTC on July 30, 2024. Credit: NOAA Environmental Modeling Center Imagine you’re a NOAA weather forecaster in the field during a raging, rapidly-spreading wildfire. Your title is incident meteorologist (or IMET), and your job is … Read more

Social media negatively impacting teens’ life satisfaction, finds Australian survey

Social media negatively impacting teens’ life satisfaction, finds Australian survey

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Social media is negatively impacting the life satisfaction of Australian high school students, according to the latest findings from Australia’s largest survey of young people. The study found that non-binary students who regularly use social media reported the lowest levels of life satisfaction. Meantime, TikTok, Reddit and Twitch users who identified … Read more

Pausing biological clock could give boost to lab-produced blood stem cells

Pausing biological clock could give boost to lab-produced blood stem cells

Magnified images show the increase in blood stem cell production that occurred when a second wave of inflammatory signaling was delayed in zebrafish embryos. The blood stem cells are colored green. Credit: Clyde Campbell A decade ago, Raquel Espin Palazon discovered that inflammatory signaling pathways must switch on for embryos to produce blood stem cells. … Read more

How a failed switch won the Nobel Prize

How a failed switch won the Nobel Prize

This picture shows an artistic representation of the nano car built by the Feringa group, using four light driven motor molecules connected by a “chassis.” It stands in front of the Academy Building of the University of Groningen. Credit: Peter van der Sijde In 2016, University of Groningen Professor of Organic Chemistry Ben Feringa and … Read more

First robot leg with ‘artificial muscles’ jumps nimbly: Study

First robot leg with ‘artificial muscles’ jumps nimbly: Study

While conventional robotic legs are driven by an electromagnetic rotary motor (left), for their musculoskeletal system the researchers use electrohydraulic actuators – i.e. artificial muscles (right). Credit: Thomas Buchner / ETH Zurich and Toshihiko Fukushima / MPI-IS Researchers said on Monday they had designed the first robotic leg with “artificial muscles”—oil-filled bags allowing machines to … Read more

Researcher examines model to foster just and equitable youth engagement in residential facilities

Researcher examines model to foster just and equitable youth engagement in residential facilities

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Recent research by Andrew Nalani, a faculty member at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, examines the viewpoints of youth care workers in juvenile residential facilities and their desires for fostering more just and equitable systems through youth-adult partnerships. Youth-adult partnerships (Y-APs) are a model for promoting social justice … Read more

Unraveling the fundamental principles of eutectic solidification with real-time, nanoscale imaging

Unraveling the fundamental principles of eutectic solidification with real-time, nanoscale imaging

Credit: Acta Materialia (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2024.120314 During eutectic solidification, a mixture of two or more solids self-assemble, forming composite microstructures ranging from ordered layers to intricate maze-like patterns that underlie properties like tensile strength or ductility. Up to this point, researchers have not understood what conditions drive eutectics to form certain patterns, which is critical … Read more

How to spot NASA’s solar sail demo in orbit

How to spot NASA’s solar sail demo in orbit

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is seen orbiting Earth in this 13-second exposure photograph, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, from Arlington, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Now that its reflective sail has deployed fully open in orbit, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System can be seen in the night sky from many locations across the world! … Read more